1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cradles, and, in particular, to a cradle on which a portable player is mounted and which supplies another device with a signal from the portable player.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable playback devices are widely used as playback devices for playing back music. The portable playback devices include storage units such as hard disks or semiconductor memories, and record digitized music signals in the storage units. The portable playback devices read the recorded digital signals, perform digital-to-analog conversion on the read signals, and output the converted signals. According to the portable playback devices, many pieces of music can be recorded and can be read as needed. Accordingly, music can be freely selected and played back without carrying many CDs (compact discs).
A portable playback device of the above type is mounted on a cradle as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-163721, whereby data can be shared with a personal computer and another device, or a secondary battery of the portable playback device can be charged.
As described above, instead of carrying the portable playback device, the portable playback device can be mounted on the cradle, whereby the cradle can send a signal from the portable playback device to a different device such as an audio amplifier. In this case, an indicator of the cradle displays an operating state, whereby the operating state can be externally, easily viewed. In other words, by providing an indicator on a housing of the cradle, and irradiating the indicator with light from, for example, an LED (light-emitting diode) as a light source so that the indicator emits light, the operating state can be displayed. However, in a case in which the indicator, which circumferentially extends over a semicircle of the cradle, is caused to emit light by a single LED, a defect occurs in that the brightness thereof has irregularity since the light cannot be uniformly guided in a circumferential direction.
In view of this defect, by providing a light guide plate inside the indicator, and using the light guide plate to guide light from the LED, the light can be guided to substantially the entirety of even a relatively long indicator. However, in the case of, for example, an indicator that extends over a circumferential semicircular portion of the cradle housing, it is very difficult to cause the indicator to uniformly emit light. In a case of the related art, in order to uniformly irradiate an indicator that extends over a circumferential semicircular portion of a cradle housing, it is necessary to use a plurality of LEDs, or it is necessary to provide a large light guide plate. This complicates the mechanism for light-emitting display by the indicator and causes a problem of a high cost.